Of course, the first line of defence is always antihistamine. I’ve tried various brands over the years but even the non-drowsy ones make me drowsy. So I’m faced with a choice of spending the summer in a narcoleptic trance or having a head full of ectoplasm like Slimer from Ghostbusters.

Apart from popping antihistamines, here is some other advice I’ve come across while researching my affliction:

1. Avoid grassy places and camping, which just translates as “avoid fun”. Yes, avoid all places where your friends and family are likely to be having the time of their lives i.e barbecues, picnics, festivals – the list goes on.

2. Wear wrap-around sunglasses at all times. I cannot begin to tell you how ridiculous I look in these. Plus, I already have a golden Labrador. If I wear sunglasses indoors, people will think I’ve been involved in a paintballing incident (for those of you who did not grow up in the 90s, Ant McPartlin’s character PJ in Byker Grove was involved in a paintballing expedition gone wrong, rendering him blind).

3. Stay indoors as much as possible. Great, so just don’t go out? Just live like some sort of seasonal agoraphobic until autumn rears its head?

4. Keep windows and doors shut. So not only have I to stay indoors but I’ve to turn my home into a stagnant, airless sweat-box.

Last night, things were so bad I began Googling “hay fever suicides”, certain that I’d come across someone who just couldn’t take it any more.

I was wrong, but I did come across several articles claiming that hay fever is linked to depression.

No wonder I cried at my computer screen (since everyone else was off out having fun in the sun).